Kanex MeDrive – unlimited storage for the iPad?

Kanex have recently released meDrive a little box of wizardry that allows you to expand your storage and create your own local cloud using external USB storage. I have manged to get my hands on a meDrive and here is my review.

I started looking for a solution to my storage problem a couple of months ago when I realised that my iPad was starting to get a bit full. I have been using the 16gb iPad for over a year now and what with all of the keynotes and videos etc on it the storage was nearly full. Without a base iMac to store all of my stuff on I was starting to get a bit concerned. I think Apple have been thinking something similar as they have released a 120gb iPad this week. But at over £700, it is definitely not within my school’s budget.

I came across Kanex’s latest offering and straightaway it grabbed my attention. Kanex claim that this little white box can simply plug into your router and any USB storage device you attached to it can be seen via the free app on your iDevices. This is what happened when I took mine out of the box.

 

If the link on the picture is not working please follow this link instead : http://goo.gl/JqlZK

As you can see from the video I had absolutely no problems finding or using the meDrive. Infact, it was so simple! I have a school iPad and my own iPhone and previously to get content from one to the over I had to email it across, now it is so easy. I can download entire photo or video folders as well as any iWork document. When I used my 1tb HDD performance was slightly slower, understandably! Even my laptop takes a while to sort through all that data. But I could still see everything on my iPad and transfer files backwards and forwards. The meDrive even allows hot swapping of the USB devices and doesn’t need to be rebooted, which is good.
My only other concern about the meDrive is that any folder that you want to access can not have any spaces in its name. Kanex have included a nice little button to combat this though. With one click you can quickly rename folders with no spaces and you are back in business.

The MeDrive, being a cloud storage area, can also be accessed by OS X and Windows based products and though I have not tested it out yet (waiting for the school test for that!) I am sure this will work as smoothly as the rest of the features of the meDrive.

So, would I spend £80 on the meDrive…….yes, I really think I would. The big question though is will it work at school? The filter at school is particularly awkward and I have always had trouble with it. The IT manager at school is on the case and he always finds the answers though! So my next post will be about the usability of the meDrive in the classroom where it has the potential to be even more amazing.
As this is my first Tech review I would really like some feedback. So if you have any questions or comments please leave a reply and I will try and answer them.

The next part of the review can be found here when I took the MeDrive into school.